Astrogator's Logs

“…they see women as radiant and merciless as the dawn…” — Semíra Ouranákis, captain of the Reckless (“Planetfall”).

I’ve been barely able to contain myself while waiting to share this cover. As with the story teasers, I won’t say more — I think the art speaks for itself. The artist who gave such eloquent expression to the stories is Eleni Tsami, whose work has graced other book and magazine covers.

One of the many marvelous attributes of the cover is that it’s not pegged to a specific story — the figure could be almost any of the protagonists in the collection. The wraparound version is as breathtaking as the front shown here and I will link to it when it appears on Eleni’s site [ETA: see link at the end of this entry]. Among other things, the back contains the full list of contributors. Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version that does justice to the work.

I think the cover does an excellent job evoking a theme and mood. The look on the woman’s face is nearly as enigmatic as the staircase/spires behind her, suggesting wanderlust and hard choices.
I can’t wait to read this collection.

Christopher — indeed, Eleni’s portfolio made me very secure in my choice. She does beautiful SF art that has that haunted, haunting aura that I wanted to be integral to this collection. The cover truly reflects the interior!

That’s exactly right, Kelly. I wanted the cover to show someone who is human first and has all kinds of things to do with her time, energy and knowledge. Note, not so incidentally, that I think she’s very beautiful. Not pretty, beautiful.